LATE UPDATE April 22, 3:05 PM ET:
Officials at the Westchester County Board of Elections say that the votes were wildly miscounted, and that Ben Carson received only 162 votes in the sixteenth precinct and 9,900 statewide.
Reginald A. LaFayette, one of the county’s election commissioners, told The New York Times that it was likely a matter of human error: “Someone could have called in something wrong.”
As Tuesday night’s presidential primary results proved, New Yorkers have little love for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). In one congressional district, Republican voters even chose to support Ben Carson—who dropped out of the race in March—over the Texas senator.
With 83 percent of districts reporting, Carson bested Cruz 2,058 votes to 1,762 in the 16th Congressional District, which includes the northern Bronx and the southern half of Westchester County. The retired neurosurgeon was also neck-and-neck with Cruz in the 17th and 18th Congressional Districts that compose the New York City suburbs, with each earning approximately 10 percent of the vote.
Cruz’s listless finish in Westchester reflected his poor showing in the Empire State overall. Donald Trump swept his home state primary, earning 60.5 percent of the vote and 89 delegates, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) won 25.1 percent support and at least three delegates. Cruz, meanwhile, finished with a paltry 14.5 percent of votes and no delegates at all, making it mathematically impossible for him to earn the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination before the Republican convention in July.
The Texas senator struggled to gain support in the state after his multiple rounds of attacks on “New York values” upset both working-class voters and deep-pocketed donors.
